Raspberry Pi 5 Is Here: How To Preorder, and the Most Notable Features of the $60 Computer

A computer that's about the size of a deck of playing cards, the Raspberry Pi can be everything from a cheap web-browsing machine to the brains behind a custom-built gadget. With significant performance upgrades and new proprietary chips, the Raspberry Pi 5 offers a much-needed improvement to what the $60 computer can do, opening up avenues for new use cases like proper office work.

First debuting back in 2012, the Raspberry Pi wasn't designed to compete against laptops and desktop PCs. It instead arrived with a size and price tag that made it an affordable accessory for electronics hobbyists, an accessible tool for those learning to code and even a cheap way to build your own retro gaming console.

The Raspberry Pi's last model, the Raspberry Pi 4, was released four years ago—almost an eternity when it comes to the frantic pace of electronics development. The Raspberry Pi 5 delivers a new chip with far improved performance, while still keeping that starting price tag to $60, plus making the computer more accessible after years of hard-to-find stock.

What Upgrades Does the Raspberry Pi 5 Bring?

The most compelling reason to upgrade to the Raspberry Pi 5, as you'd expect from any new computer, is a boost in processor performance. The Pi 5's creators are promising a 2-3X performance boost thanks to a 2.4GHz 64-bit quad-core Arm Cortex-A76 processor. The Pi 5 is also supposed to have twice the graphics capabilities, powered by an 800MHz VideoCore VII graphics processing unit.

That will certainly improve the Raspberry Pi's capabilities when it comes to gaming, but the single board computer will still lag far behind when it comes to modern titles. More useful to most users is that the extra processing horsepower will allow the Pi 5 to power two 4K monitors each running at 60 frames per second, which it can support with 2 dedicated HDMI ports. Finally, the microcomputer can serve as a genuine desktop PC replacement for everyday tasks like web browsing, email, word processing and spreadsheets.

For the first time, the Raspberry Pi 5 will also arrive with a chip the company developed in-house. It's no competitor to Apple's powerful M2 processor, but the new chip promises to boost the Raspberry Pi 5's speed when it comes to transferring data to and from other devices. That includes faster USB 3.0, SD card and ethernet data rates, plus better performance for users directly attaching their own display modules. There's also improved compatibility for cameras with larger sensors.

The Raspberry Pi 5's upgraded processor will draw less power and run cooler than the Pi 4 when handling the same workload, but when taking advantage of the Pi 5's improved performance capabilities, it will draw more power (12W compared to 8W, previously) and generate more heat.

To ensure overheating doesn't slow heavy processing loads to a crawl, a $5 Active Cooler accessory with a fan and a heatsink can be attached to the board, while a new $10 case includes integrated heatsinks, venting and a fan. For those not sticking the computer into a custom chassis, this lets you protect it while also ensuring it stays cool enough to properly deliver its performance improvements.

How to Preorder the Raspberry Pi 5

Although the Raspberry Pi 5 was announced earlier this week, the hardware isn't expected to ship until some time in late October. If you want to ensure you're among the first to get your hands on one, a few online resellers in the US have made them available for preorder, priced at $60 for the Raspberry Pi 5 with 4GB of onboard storage, or $80 for the Pi 5 with 8GB of storage. These shops include Adafruit, PiShop.us and SparkFun.